Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 31: Following a series of fratricidal killings by the Army personnel in militancy infested Jammu and Kashmir and other States of the country, the Government of India has asked the highest defence research body-the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to develop methods to keep the Army officers and jawans stress free especially during their posting in militancy infested and border areas.
“The Union Government has ordered a study into the stress level encountered by young officers and jawans of the Army and has also asked the DRDO to develop methods to mitigate it,” top official sources told the Excelsior.
The stress level by the Army officers and jawans has mostly been reported from militancy infested States like Jammu and Kashmir, where a number of fratricidal killings have been reported.
Sources said the Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR), a laboratory of DRDO has also undertaken a separate study on “Factors Causing Distress Among Young Officers of Indian Army’.
The DIPR undertook the study with three major objectives including the level of distress prevailing among the young Army officers and soldiers, casual factors that create distress among young officers and deplete their resources to cope with it and remedial measures to manage stress among young officers and jawans of the Army.
Sources said the DIPR has submitted its detailed set of recommendations to the Government of India, which were being analyzed by the Defence Ministry and would be shortly implemented especially the ones, which would be found practical in reducing stress level of Army officers and soldiers, which would go a long way in reducing or even putting to an end the number of fratricidal killings.
Sources added that the DIPR has also developed `Suicide Risk Assessment Test’ to identify at-risk personnel, which the Government of India has already handed over to the Army.
The Army would study the ‘Suicide Risk Assessment Test’ and implements its recommendations, which were found feasible to reduce the suicide tendency among the jawans and minimize or put to an end the fratricidal killings especially in the militancy infested States like Jammu and Kashmir, where the Army has vast presence on the Line of Control (LoC) and other areas.
“Various programmes, workshops, seminars and other such programmes are being conducted by the DIPR on stress level among Army officer and soldiers, suicide risk and related subjects for officers and jawans of the armed forces across the country especially in the militancy infested and border States, where there was large presence of the troops,” sources said.
It may be mentioned here that during past several years, number of the fratricidal killings had gone up not only in Jammu and Kashmir but other parts of the country also prompting the Defence Ministry to undertake detailed analysis of the reasons behind such incidents and prevent their recurrence.
Sources said detailed analysis of such incidents had attributed them to high stress level among Army officers and soldiers especially during their posting in militancy infested areas and on the borders.
They hoped that after the implementation of various suggestions by the DRDO and DIPR the stress level among Army officers and jawans would come down and reduce or put to an end the fratricidal killings.
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